A  NATIONAL  TEST 
OF  BROTHERHOOD 

America's  Opportunity 
to  Relieve  Suffering  in 

Armenia,  Syria,  Persia,  and 
Palestine 

J0 


A  CALL  TO  AMERICA 

TJUNDREDS  of  thousands  of  people  in  the  near  East  are  in 
dire  distress — other  hundreds  of  thousands  have  per- 
ished. The  survivors  must  be  relieved  and  saved.  To  help 
meet  this  appalling  situation,  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  passed  a  resolution  asking  President  Wilson  to  appoint 
a  time  for  making  an  appeal  and  receiving  gifts  for  the  suf- 
ferers. The  President  has  designated  October  21,  22  for  this 
purpose. 

This  handbook  is  designed  to  place  information  at  the 
disposal  of  those  who  deliver  addresses  or  sermons  or  who 
make  personal  appeals  to  persons  with  financial  ability  in 
behalf  of  those  who  are  in  such  distress. 


WE  are  not  keeping  up  with  the  world's  suffering  today. 
But  though  we  stop  thinking  of  these  millions,  living 
on  the  verge  of  destitution,  THEY  CANNOT  STOP  DYING; 
though  we  may  be  calloused  to  suffering,  they  cannot  be 
calloused  to  starvation." 

Extract  from  the  sermon  of  a  minister  who  backed  up  his 
sermon  by  raising  $10,000  for  relief  work  in  a  week. 


ARE  WE  GROWING  CALLOUS? 

"'Another  collection!'  says  some  reader,  and  hastily  turns  the  page. 
Not  so  fast.  If  America,  calloused  by  repeated  appeals,  shall  lose  her 
grace  of  compassion,  then  she  will  be  the  chief  sufferer  from  the  war. 
From  the  successive  calls  which  have  been  made  upon  her  sympathy 
since  August,  1914,  she  can  form  some  faint  conception  of  the  demands 
which  human  waywardness  and  sorrow  and  sin  made  and  still  make 
upon  the  exhaustless  heart  of  the  great  God,  who  is  a  God  of  love. 
'We  do  pray  for  mercy,  and  that  same  prayer  doth  teach  us  all  to 
render  the  deeds  of  mercy.' 

"Christianity  is  blamed  for  not  averting  the  catastrophe  under  whose 
scourge  the  world  now  writhes.  The  charge  may  be  groundless,  but 
if  our  brethren  are  sick  and  starving  while  we  who  profess  to  be  His 
disciples  sit  in  comfort  and  luxury,  we  shall  hardly  escape  the  con- 
demnation of  the  world  or  of  Him  who  lived  and  died  to  teach  us  that 
all  mankind  are  brothers." 

— A  quotation  from  an  editorial  in 

The  Christian  Advocate,  Sept.  21,  1916. 


A  PICTURE  DARK  AND  TERRIBLE 
A  Massacre,  the  most  dreadful  of  modern  times. 

Pillage  and  deportation  on  a  scale  probably  never 
before  attempted. 

At  least  a  million  Armenian  survivors  destitute. 

In  Syria,  Persia  and  Palestine,  wide-spread  hunger, 
disease  and  death. 

One  cablegram  announced  that  the  refugees  were 
eating  grass. 

A  later  message  reports  that  the  grass  is  dried  up 
and  that  the  emaciated  victims  are  eating  carrion,  the 
street  dogs  and  even  human  flesh. 

Another  winter  is  approaching,  and  homeless,  pen- 
niless multitudes  have  no  shelter,  clothing  or  food. 

The  cry  for  rescue  comes  to  us. 

Can  we,  dare  we,  withhold  the  help  we  can  give? 


SOURCES  OF  FACTS. 

The  facts  contained  in  the  following  pages  have  been  collected  from 
many  sources.  It  is  deemed  unnecessary  in  many  cases  to  give  credit 
for  them  or  to  indicate  their  origin  for  valid  reasons,  although  there 
are  abundant  means  for  doing  so  in  the  possession  of  those  interested 
in  helping  the  peoples  of  Asia  Minor  in  this  hour  of  awful  tragedy. 
Careful  and  extensive  investigation  has  been  made  by  persons  whose 
authority,  veracity  and  integrity  are  unquestioned.  These  witnesses  are 
so  numerous  and  their  statements  are  so  well  authenticated  that  the 
facts  here  given  may  be  used  in  the  confidence  that  they  are  as 
accurate  as  is  possible  in  the  midst  of  the  disturbed  conditions  existing 
in  the  war  zones.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  they  understate  rather 
than  overstate  the  situation.  After  the  main  facts  in  this  handbook 
were  in  type,  proof  of  a  book  of  nearly  seven  hundred  pages  of  docu- 
ments and  other  facts  collected  by  Viscount  Bryce  was  sent  to  the 
Committee.  The  facts  in  the  Bryce  book  intensify  many  fold  the 
impressions  of  suffering  and  need  given  by  the  comparatively  few  facts 
which  are  included  in  this  handbook. 

Some  will  regret  the  repetition  of  so  many  sickening  details.  Would 
that  it  were  not  necessary  to  repeat  them,  but  this  seems  to  be  the 
only  possible  means  of  bringing  home  with  vividness  an  unforgettable 
appeal  as  to  the  awful  needs.  Some  of  the  facts  included  are  intended 
only  to  deepen  the  conviction  of  those  who  make  addresses  in  con- 
nection with  the  campaign  to  secure  relief  funds  and  not  for  public 
recital. 


A  TRAGEDY  OF  TERRIFIC  PROPORTIONS. 

In  the  present  world  crisis  where  millions  are  subjected  to  strain 
and  horror  on  a  scale  which  staggers  the  imagination,  there  is  a  group 
of  nations  whose  appeal  to  humanity  is  heart-rending  in  the  extreme. 
Innocent  non-combatants  have  been  subjected  to  treatment  almost  in- 
conceivable. Some  of  the  facts  as  related  by  different  authorities,  many 
of  them  eye  witnesses,  follow. 

The  first  is  the  story  of  Armenia's  tragedy  as  given  by  Herbert  A. 
Gibbons  in  a  book  entitled  The  Blackest  Page  in  Modern  History. 
Dr.  Gibbons  was  for  years  a  correspondent  on  Turkish  affairs  for 
various  European  and  American  papers.  He  has  spent  many  years 
in  touch  with  Turkey,  was  in  Adana  during  the  massacre  of  1909  and 
has  written  extensively  on  Turkish  affairs. 

In  the  autumn  of  1914,  the  Turks  began  to  mobilize  Christians  as 
well  as  Moslems  for  the  army.  For  six  months,  in  every  part  of  Tur- 
key, they  called  upon  the  Armenians  for  military  service.  Exemption 
money  was  accepted  from  those  who  could  pay.  A  few  weeks  later 
the  exemption  certificates  were  disregarded,  and  their  holders  enrolled. 
The  younger  classes  of  Armenians,  who  did  not  live  too  far  from 
Constantinople,  were  placed,  as  in  the  Balkan  wars,  in  the  active 
army.  The  older  ones,  and  all  the  Armenians  enrolled  in  the  more 
distant  regions,  were  utilized  for  road,  railway,  and  fortification 
building.  Wherever  they  were  called,  and  to  whatever  task  they 
were  put,  the'  Armenians  did  their  duty,  and  worked  for  the  defence 
of  Turkey.  They  proved  themselves  brave  soldiers  and  intelligent 
and  industrious  laborers. 

A  new  era  of  Armenian  massacres  began. 

At  first,  in  order  that  the  task  might  be  accomplished  with  the 
least  possible  risk,  the  virile  masculine  Armenian  population  still  left 
in  the  cities  and  villages  was  summoned  to  assemble  at  a  convenient 
place,  generally  outside  the  town,  and  gendarmes  and  police  saw  to 
it  that  the  summons  was  obeyed.  None  was  overlooked.  When  they 
had  rounded  up  the  Armenian  men,  they  butchered  them.  This 
method  of  procedure  was  generally  feasible  in  small  places.  The 
Armenian  notables  were  assassinated  in  the  streets  or  in  their  homes. 
If  it  was  an  interior  city,  the  men  were  sent  off  under  guard  to 
"another  town."  In  a  few  hours  the  guard  would  return  without 
their  prisoners.  If  it  was  a  coast  city,  the  Armenians  were  taken 
away  in  boats  outside  the  harbor  to  "another  port."  The  boats  re- 
turned astonishingly  soon  without  the  passengers. 


3 


Then,  in  order  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  trouble  from  Arme- 
nians mobilized  for  railway  and  road  construction,  they  were  divided 
in  companies  of  from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  and  put  to  work 
at  intervals  of  several  miles.  Regiments  of  the  Turkish  regu.ar 
army  were  sent  "to  put  down  the  Armenian  revolution,  and  came 
suddenly  upon  the  little  groups  of  workers  plying  pickaxe  crowbar, 
and  shovel.  The  "rebels"  were  riddled  with  bullets  before  they  knew 
what  was  happening.  The  few  who  managed  to  flee  were  followed 
by  mounted  men,  and  shot  or  sabred. 

******* 

No  hamlet  was  too  insignificant  to  be  missed.  The  news  was 
given  by  town  criers  that  EVERY  Armenian  was  to  be  ready  to 
leave  at  a  certain  hour  for  an  unknown  deatination.  There  were  no 
exceptions  for  the  aged,  the  ill,  the  women  in  pregnancy  On.y 
rich  merchants  and  bankers  and  good-looking  women  and  girls  were 
alowcd  to  escape  by  professing  Islam,  and  let  it  be  said  to  their 
everlasting  honor  that  few  availed  themselves  of  this  means  of  cccape 
The  time  given  varied  from  two  days  to  six  hours.  No  household 
goods,  no  animals,  no  extra  clothing  could  be  taken  along.  Food 
supply  and  bedding  was  limited  to  what  a  person  could  carry.  And 
they  had  to  go  ON  FOOT  under  the  burning  sun  through  parched 
valleys  and  over  snow-covered  mountain  passes,  a  journey  of  from 
three  to  eight  weeks. 

When  they  passed  through  Christian  villages  where  the  deporta- 
tion order  had  not  yet  been  received,  the  travellers  were  not  allowed 
to  receive  food  or  ministrations  of  any  sort.  The  sick  and  the  aged 
and  the  wee  children  fell  by  the  roadside,  and  did  not  rise  again. 
WOMEN  IN  CHILDBIRTH  WERE  URGED  ALONG  BY  BAY- 
ONETS AND  WHIPS  UNTIL  THE  MOMENT  OF  DELIVER- 
ANCE CAME,  AND  WERE  LEFT  TO  BLEED  TO  DEATH. 
The  likely  girls  were  seized  for  harems,  or  raped  day  after  day  by 
the  guards  until  death  came  as  a  merciful  release.  Those  who  could 
committed  suicide.  Mothers  went  crazy,  and  threw  their  children 
into  the  river  to  end  their  sufferings.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
women  and  children  died  of  hunger,  of  thirst,  of  exposure,  of  shame. 

The  pitiful  caravans  thinned  out,  first  daily,  and  later  hourly. 
Death  became  the  one  thing  to  be  longed  for,  for  how  can  hope  live, 
how  can  strength  remain,  even  to  the  fittest,  in  a  journey  that  has 
no  end?  And  if  they  turned  to  right  or  left  from  that  road  to  hell, 
they  were  shot  or  speared.  Kurds  and  mounted  peasants  hunted 
down  those  who  succeeded  in  escaping  the  roadside  guards. 


I  had  just  written  the  above  paragraph  when  an  English  woman 
whom  I  have  known  for  many  years  came  to  my  home.  She  left 
Adana,  in  Cilicia,  only  a  month  ago.  Her  story  is  the  same  as  that  of 
a  hundred  others.  I  have  the  identical  facts,  one  eye-witness  tes- 
timony corroborating  the  other,  from  American,  English,  German, 
and  Swiss  sources.   This  English  woman  said  to  me,  "The  deporta- 


tion  is  still  going  on.  From  the  interior  along  the  Bagdad  Railway 
they  are  still  being  sent  through  Adana  on  the  journey  of  death.  As 
far  as  the  railway  exists,  it  is  being  used  to  hurry  the  work  of  exter- 
mination faster  than  the  caravans  from  the  regions  where  there  are 
no  railways.  Oh!  if  they  would  only  massacre  them,  and  be  done 
with  it,  as  in  the  Hamidian  daysl  I  stood  there  at  the  Adana  rail- 
way station,  and  from  the  carriages  the  women  would  hold  up  their 
children,  and  cry  for  water.  They  had  got  beyond  a  desire  for  bread. 
Only  water!  There  was  a  pump.  I  went  down  on  my  knees  to  beg 
the  Turklch  guard  to  let  me  give  them  a  drink.  But  the  train  moved 
on,  end  ;he  lact  I  heard  was  the  cry  of  those  lost  souls.  That  was 
not  once.    It  was  almost  every  day  the  same  thing." 

A  SHORTER  ACCOUNT  FROM  THE  REPORT  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  BOARD. 

Of  the  two  million  Armenians  in  Turkey  one  year  ago,  at  least  one 
million  have  been  killed,  driven  from  the  country,  forced  into  Islam, 
have  perished  on  the  way  to  exile  or  been  deported  to  northern 
Arabia. 

The  Armenians  in  the  army  were  first  brutally  put  to  death;  then 
followed  those  who  had  purchased  exemption  and  nearly  all  able- 
bodied  males  above  twelve  years  of  age.  After  this  the  remaining 
men,  women  and  children  were  sent  out  upon  a  journey  of  months, 
mostly  on  foot,  to  the  arid  regions  of  Syria  and  northern  Arabia. 

These  helpless,  hopeless  refugees  were  forced  out  from  their 
homes  with  little  preparation  for  the  journey  and  with  no  shelter 
from  the  storms  or  protection  from  the  cold  or  heat. 

A  man  following  one  of  these  caravans  for  twenty-five  miles 
reported  to  a  United  States  Consul  that  he  counted  over  five  hundred 
dead  bodies  on  the  road. 

WOMEN  GIVING  BIRTH  TO  CHILDREN  UPON  THE 
ROAD  WERE  FORBIDDEN  TO  DELAY  BY  THE  WAY,  AND 
OFTEN  DIED  FROM  HEMORRHAGE  AS  THEY  STRUGGLED 
ON. 

Children  by  the  hundred  were  cast  into  rivers  by  their  parents 
to  save  them  from  mortal  suffering. 

A  United  States  Consul  reported  that  he  saw  refugees  brained  with 
clubs  because  they,  when  starving,  crowded  their  guards  for  food. 

ARMENIAN  PROFESSORS  IN  AMERICAN  COLLEGES, 
WITH  UNIVERSITY  DEGREES  FROM  EUROPEAN  AND 
AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES,  WERE  TORTURED  BY  PULL- 
ING OUT  THEIR  HAIR  AND  BEARD  AND  THEIR  FINGER 
NAILS,  BY  HANGING  THEM  UP  BY  THE  ARMS  FOR 
HOURS,  AND  BY  BEATING.  THEY  WERE  AFTERWARDS 
KILLED. 

Comely  women  and  girls  have  been  in  great  numbers  forcibly 
taken  into  Mohammedan  harems.  Entire  towns  have  been  driven  to 
accept  Islam  to  save  themselves  from  death. 


5 


A  THIRD  DESCRIPTION. 


The  Armenians  defended  themselves,  barricading  the  Armenian 
section  ot  the  city,  in  which  the  American  Board  mission  premises 
chanced  to  tail,  and  ior  a  month  withstood  the  attack  of  the  Turkish 
army.  Beginning  April  20,  the  siege  continued  until  the  middle  of 
May.  The  Turks  withdrew  from  Van  toward  Bitlis,  two  or  three 
days  before  the  Russian  troops  entered  the  city.  This  defense  of 
the  Armenians  against  the  attack  of  the  Turks  was  reported  through- 
out the  Turkish  empire  as  an  uprising  of  the  Armenians  against  the 
Government,  and  exaggerated  stories  were  circulated  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Armenians  had  massacred  Turkish  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren in  cold  blood.  This  inflamed  the  Mohammedans  of  Turkey 
against  the  Armenians  and  led  to  the  carrying  out  of  their  policy 
of  extermination  with  wanton  cruelty.  At  the  same  time  it  led  to 
the  killing  of  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  Armenian  members  of  the 
Turkish  army,  and  to  the  arrest,  imprisonment,  and,  for  the  most 
part,  death,  of  the  majority  at  least  of  able-bodied  Armenian  men, 
as  well  as  others,  who  were  not  connected  with  the  army,  many 
of  whom  had  paid  the  allotted  price  for  exemption  from  military 
service. 

As  soon  as  the  men  were  thus  disposed  of,  with  still  greater  vigor 
and  violence  the  deportation  of  the  Armenians  from  their  homes 
toward  northern  Arabia  was  begun.  First  the  regions  of  Erzroom, 
Van,  Erzingan,  Bitlis  and  Harpoot  were  attacked,  and  Armenian 
women  and  children,  with  the  few  remaining  men,  were  started  upon 
their  journey  south  and  east,  over  hundreds  of  miles  of  mountain 
and  plain,  toward  Oorfa,  Aleppo,  and  the  regions  beyond.  These 
helpless  caravans  were  unprovided  with  food  or  shelter  for  the 
journey;  they  were  frequently  attacked  on  the  way  by  brigands, 
Kurds,  and  even  their  own  guards.  The  men  who  started  with  the 
caravans  were  nearly  if  not  quite  all  killed  before  the  journey  was 
half  done.  A  large  number  of  women  were  taken  by  force  from  the 
groups  for  Moslem  harems,,  and  the  roads  over  which  these  caravans 
travelled  were  lined  with  the  bodies  of  those  unable  to  survive  the 
hardships  of  the  journey. 

The  story  is  the  same  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  This  method 
of  deportation  extended  gradually  westward  so  as  to  include  Sivas  and 
its  environs,  Marsovan,  Bardizag,  Brousa,  later  Cesarea  and  Konia, 
and  many  other  regions.  Zeitoon,  in  the  Central  Turkey  field,  was 
one  of  the  first  places  attacked  in  that  region.  Zeitoon  was  an 
Armenian  city,  and  the  Armenians  had  been  unusually  aggressive  and 
independent.  This  city  was  practically  depopulated,  as  was  Hadjin. 
Cesarea,  Tarsus,  Adana,  Marash  and  Aintab,  and  their  environs,  were 
spared  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  deportations,  and  it  was  hoped 
that  they  might  be  spared  to  the  end,  but,  early  in  September,  when 
there  were  rumors  that  the  Allies  might  land  at  Mersine,  there  was 
a  great  drive  of  the  Armenians  from  these  centers  toward  Aleppo, 
although,  in  this  latter  case,  the  men  were  not  treated  with  the  same 
severity,  they  were  elsewhere  and  earlier  in  the  season. 


6 


™Zx  wahs  ereat  loss  of  life  attending  the  journey  of  these  cara- 
vans and  wh,le  waiting  at  the  railheads  or  at  railway  stations  for 
transportation.  One  group  seen  at  Adana,  that  had  come  from  Konia, 
reported  that  at  least  one-half  of  the  party  starting  with  the  caravan 
had  died  on  the  way.  A  group  seen  by  the  United  States  Consul  at 
Harpoot,  corning  from  Erzingan  and  Erzroom  at  the  north,  reported 
about  one-half  their  number  as  having  perished  on  the  road,  and  they 
were  still  two  hundred  miles  from  Aleppo,  their  objective. 

It  is  difficult  even  to  estimate  the  number  of  Armenians  that  have 
perished  or  have  suffered  intensely  from  this  attack.  If  we  assume 
that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  there  were  2,000,000  Armenians 
m  Turkey— and  this  number  is  usually  conceded  to  be  fairly  conse-va- 
tive  and  approximately  accurate-it  is  probably  not  an  exaggeration 
to  say  that  at  least  one-half  of  these,  or  1,000,000,  have  felt  the  blow 
with  intensity.  Large  numbers  were  able  to  flee,  from  the  provinces 
of  Erzroom,  Trebizond  and  Van,  into  Russia  and  Persia,  leaving 
everything  that  they  possessed  behind.  Many  of  these  are  in  a  desper 
ate  condition  of  need  at  the  present  time. 


INDIVIDUAL  TESTIMONIES. 

The  Council  of  the  Supreme  Patriarch  and  Katholikos  of  all  Arme- 
nians, writes  to  the  American  Committee  for  Armenian  and  Syrian 
Relief  from  Etchmiadzin,  the  Armenian  Canterbury,  on  January  1 
1916  (new  style).  From  this  letter,  published  in  translation  in  the 
"New  Armenia,"  March  1,  1916,  we  quote  the  following  passages: 

"At  their  second  retirement  from  Van  in  July,  the  Armenian  resi- 
dents were  bereft  of  all  their  possessions— houses,  agricultural  imple- 
ments, and  domestic  animals— at  the  same  time  having  their  homes 
burned  up.  IN  THE  LITERAL  SENSE  OF  THE  WORD  100  000 
TO  120,000  ARMENIANS  ARRIVED  AT  ETCHMIADZIN 
STRIPPED  EVEN  OF  THEIR  OUTER  GARMENTS.  Thirty-five 
thousand  to  40,000  of  them  were  accommodated  in  Etchmaidzin. 

"In  Etchmaidzin  alone  11,000  people  died,  and  in  the  country 
round  about  it  about  40,000  people  died.  Through  the  means  that 
the  local  committee  used,  the  disease  was  gradually  checked.  • 

"From  5,000  to  6,000  orphans  and  exhausted  and  worn-out  people 
found  refuge  in  the  orphanages.  They  were  like  skeletons  in  human 
form.  Through  our  care  to-day  they  are  safe  and  sound  in  Etch- 
miadzin, Dipghis,  Baku,  Erivan,  Gharakilisa,  and  Ashtarak. 


TESTIMONY  OF  A  WIDOW. 

A  week  before  anything  was  done  to  ,  the  villages  all  around 

had  been  emptied  and  their  inhabitants  had  become  victims  of  the 
gendarmes  and  marauding  bands.    Three  days  before  the  starting 

of  the  Armenians  from   ,  after  a  week's  imprisonment,  Bishop 

  had  been  hanged,  with  seven  other  notables.    After  these 

hangings,  seven  or  eight  other  notables  were  killed  in  their  own 
houses  for  refusing  to  go  out  of  the  city.    Seventy  or  eighty  other 


7 


Armenians,  after  being  beaten  in  prison,  were  taken  to  the  woods 

and  killed.   The  Armenian  population  of  was  sent  off  in  three 

batches;  I  was  among  the  third  batch.  My  husband  died  eight  years 
ago,  leaving  me  and  my  eight-year-old  daughter  and  my  mother 
extensive  possessions,  so  that  we  were  living  in  comfort.  Since 

mobUzation  began,  the    Commandant  has  been  living  in  my 

house  free  of  rent.  He  told  me  not  to  go,  but  I  felt  I  must  share 
the  fate  of  my  people.  I  took  three  horses  with  me,  loaded  with 
provisions.  My  daughter  had  some  five-lira  pieces  around  her  neck, 
and  I  carried  some  twenty  liras  and  four  diamond  rings  on  my  person. 
All  else  that  we  had  was  left  behind.  Our  party  left  June  1  (old 
style),  fifteen  gendarmes  going  with  us.  The  party  numbered  four  or 
five  hundred  persons.  We  had  got  only  two  hours  away  from  home 
when  bands  of  villagers  and  brigands  in  large  numbers,  with  rifles, 
guns,  axes,  etc.,  surrounded  us  on  the  road,  and  robbed  us  of  all  we 
had.  The  gendarmes  took  my  three  horses  and  sold  them  to  Turkish 
mouhadjirs,  pocketing  the  money.  They  took  my  money  and  that 
from  my  daughter's  neck,  also  ail  our  food.  After  this  they  separated 
the  men,  one  by  one,  and  shot  them  all  within  six  or  seven  days — 
every  male  above  15  years  old.  By  my  side  were  killed  two  priests, 
one  of  them  over  90  years  of  age.  These  bandsmen  took  all  the 
good-looking  women  and  carried  them  off  on  their  horses.  Very 
many  women  and  girls  were  thus  carried  off  to  the  mountains, 
among  them  my  sister,  whose  one-year-old  baby  they  threw  away; 
a  Turk  picked  it  up  and  carried  it  off,  I  know  not  where.  My  mother 
walked  till  she  could  walk  no  farther,  and  dropped  by  the  roadside 
on  a  mountain-top.    We  found  on  the  road  many  of  those  who  had 

been  in  the  previous  sections  carried  from  ;  some  women  were 

among  the  killed,  with  their  husbands  and  sons.  We  also  came 
across  some  old  people  and  little,  infants  still  alive  but  in  a  pitiful 
condition,  having  shouted  their  voices  away.  We  were  not  allowed 
to  sleep  at  night  in  the  villages,  but  lay  down  outside.  Under  cover 
of  the  night  indescribable  deeds  were  committed  by  the  gendarmes, 
bandsmen  and  villagers.  Many  of  us  died  from  hunger  and  strokes 
of  apoplexy.    Others  were  left  by  the  roadside,  too  feeble  to  go  on. 

One  morning  we  saw  fifty  to  sixty  wagons  with  about  thirty 
Turkish  widows,  whose  husbands  had  been  killed  in  the  war;  and 
these  were  going  to  Constantinople.  One  of  these  women  made  a 
sign  to  one  of  the  gendarmes  to  kill  a  certain  Armenian  whom  she 
pointed  out.  The  gendarmes  asked  her  if  she  did  not  wish  to  kill 
him  herself,  at  which  she  said,  "Why  not?"  and,  drawing  a  revolver 
from  her  pocket,  shot  and  killed  him.  Each  one  of  these  Turkish 
hanums  had  five  or  six  Armenian  girls  of  ten  or  under  with  her. 
BOYS  THE  TURKS  NEVER  WISHED  TO  TAKE;  THEY 
KILLED  ALL,  OF  WHATEVER  AGE.  These  women  wanted  to 
take  my  daughter,  too,  but  she  would  not  be  separated  from  me. 
Finally  we  were  both  taken  into  their  wagons  on  our  promising  to 
become  Moslems.  As  soon  as  we  entered  the  araba,  they  began  to 
teach  us  how  to  be  Moslems,  and  changed  our  names,  calling  me 

  and  her   . 

The  worst  and  most  unimaginable  horrors  were  reserved  for  us 
at  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  and  in  the  Erzingian  plain.    The  muti- 


lated  bodies  of  women,  girls  and  little  children  made  everybody 
shudder.  The  bandsman  were  doing  all  sorts  of  awful  deeds  to  the 
women  and  girls  that  were  with  us,  whose  cries  went  up  to  heaven. 
At  the  Euphrates,  the  bandsmen  and  gendarmes  threw  into  the  river 
all  the  remaining  children  under  fifteen  years  old.  Those  that  could 
swim  were  shot  down  as  they  struggled  in  the  water. 

After  seven  days  we  reached   .    Not  an  Armenian  was  left 

alive  there.  The  Turkish  women  took  my  daughter  and  me  to  the 
bath,  and  there  showed  us  many  other  women  and  girls  that  had 

accepted  Islam.    Between  there  and   ,  the  fields  and  hillsides 

were  dotted  with  swollen  and  blackened  corpses  that  filled  and  fouled 
the  air  with  their  stench.  On  this  road  we  met  six  women  wearing 
the  feradje  and  with  children  in  their  arms.  But  when  the  gen- 
darmes lifted  their  veils,  they  found  that  they  were  men  in  disguise, 
so  they  shot  them.   After  thirty-two  days'  journey  we  reached  . 

EXTRACTS  FROM  OTHER  AUTHENTIC  REPORTS 

The  exiles  are  forbidden  to  take  anything  with  them.  For  that 
matter,  in  the  districts  under  military  occupation  there  is  nothing 
left  to  take,  as  the  military  authorities  have  exerted  themselves  to 
carry  off,  for  their  own  use,  everything  that  they  could  lay  hands  on. 

*  *    *  * 

"One  thousand  six  hundred  Armenians  have  had  their  throats  cut 
in  the  prisons  at  Diyarbekir.  THE  ARASHNORT  WAS  MUTI- 
LATED, DRENCHED  WITH  ALCOHOL,  AND  BURNT  ALIVE 
IN  THE  PRISON  YARD,  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  A  CAROUSING 
CROWD  OF  GENDARMES,  WHO  EVEN  ACCOMPANIED  THE 
SCENE  WITH  MUSIC.  The  massacres  at  Beniani,  Adeyaman  and 
Selefeka  have  been  carried  out  diabolically;  there  is  not  a  single  man 
left  over  the  age  of  thirteen.  The  girls  have  been  outraged  merci- 
lessly; we  have  seen  their  mutilated  corpses  tied  together  in  batches 
of  four,  eight  and  ten,  and  cast  into  the  Euphrates.  The  majority 
have  been  mutilated  in  an  indescribable  manner." 

*  *    *  * 

"At  Vezir  Kopru  (District  of  Marsovan)  all  Armenian  women  and 
girls  from  seven  to  forty  years  have  been  sold  at  auction.  Women 
were  also  presented  to  the  buyers  without  payment." 

*  *    *  * 

"I  AM  AMAZED  AT  THE  SELF-CONTROL  OF  THE  AR- 
MENIANS, FOR  THOUGH  THE  TURKS  DID  NOT  SPARE  A 
SINGLE  WOUNDED  ARMENIAN,  THE  ARMENIANS  ARE 
HELPING  US  TO  SAVE  THE  TURKS— A  THING  THAT  I  DO 
NOT  BELIEVE  EVEN  EUROPEANS  WOULD  DO." 


9 


"The  shortest  method  for  disposing  of  the  women  and  children 
concentrated  in  the  various  camps  was  to  burn  them.  Fire  was  set 
to  large  wooden  sheds  in  Alidjan,  Megrokam,  Khaskegh,  and  other 
Armenian  villages,  AND  THESE  ABSOLUTELY  HELPLESS 
WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  WERE  ROASTED  TO  DEATH. 
Many  went  mad  and  threw  their  children  away;  some  knelt  down  and 
prayed  amid  the  flames  in  which  their  bodies  were  burning;  others 
shrieked  and  cried  for  help  which  came  from  nowhere.  And  the 
executioners,  who  seem  to  hav*  been  unmoved  by  this  unparalleled 
savagery,  grasped  the  infants  by  one  leg  and  hurled  them  into  the 
fire  calling  out  to  the  burning  mothers,  "Here  are  your  lions." 
Turkish  prisoners  who  had  apparently  witnessed  some  of  these  scenes, 
were  horrified  and  maddened  at  remembering  the  sight.  They  told 
the  Russians  that  the  stench  of  the  burning  human  flesh  permeated 
the  air  for  many  days  afterwards." 

*  *    *  * 

"As  I  stand  at  my  window  in  the  morning  I  see  one  after  another 
of  the  little  bodies  carried  by,  wrapped  mostly  in  a  ragged  piece  of 
patch-work;' and  THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  LIVING  IS  MORE 
PITIFUL  THAN  THAT  OF  THE  DEAD— hungry,  ragged,  dirty, 
sick,  cold,  wet,  swarming  with  vermin — thousands  of  them.  Not  for 
all  the  wealth  of  all  the  rulers  of  Europe  would  I  bear  for  one  hour 
their  responsibility  for  the  suffering  and  misery  of  this  one  little 
corner  of  the  world  alone.  A  helpless,  unarmed  Christian  community 
turned  over  to  the  sword  and  possession  of  Islam!" 

*  *    *  * 

"Professor  A.  Served  College  35  years;  representative  of  the 
Americans  with  the  government,  Protestant  "Akabed,"  professor  of 
Turkish  and  history.  Besides  previous  trouble,  arrested  May  1  with- 
out charge;  hair  of  head,  moustache  and  beard  pulled  out,  in  vain 
effort  to  secure  damaging  confessions;  starved  and  hung  by  arms 
for  a  day  and  a  night,  and  severely  beaten  several  times;  taken  out 
towards  Diyarbekir  about  June  20th,  and  murdered  in  general  mas- 
sacre on  the  road. 

"Professor  B.  Served  College  33  years,  studied  at  Ann  Arbor, 
professor  of  mathematics.  Arrested  about  June  5th,  and  shared  Pro- 
fessor A's  fate  on  the  road. 

"Professor  C.  Taken  to  witness  a  man  beaten  almost  to  death; 
became  mentally  deranged;  started  with  his  family  about  July  5th 
into  exile  under  guard,  and  murdered  beyond  Malatia.  Principal  of 
Preparatory  Department;  studied  at  Princeton;  served  College  20  years. 

"Professor  D.  Served  College  16  years;  studied  at  Edinburgh- 
professor  of  mental  and  moral  science.  Arrested  with  Professor  A 
and  suffered  same  tortures;  also  had  three  fingernails  pulled  out  by 
the  roots;  killed  in  same  massacre." 


10 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS. 


The  facts  already  given  contain  much  information  about  present 
needs  and  conditions,  but  the  following  will  present  abundant  additional 
evidence.  The  number  and  location  of  survivors  needing  assistance  are 
as  accurate  and  complete  as  possible. 


SUMMARY   OF  THE  AWFUL  FACTS. 

Armenian  population  of  Turkey,  Persia  and  Syria  before  the 

European  War    2,000,000 

Armenians  massacred  or  died  of  wounds,  disease  or  exhaus- 
tion, about    850,000 

Survivors,  about    1,150,000 

Total  number  of  Syrians  in  Syria,  the  Lebanon  region,  Persia, 

and  in  the  whole  of  what  is  called  The  Levant,  over. . . .  3,000,000 

Number  of  Syrians  who  have  perished,  over   100,000 

Amount  of  money  needed  at  once  for  relief  of  Armenians 

and  Syrians   $5,000,000 


A  FEW  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NEED  ARE  GIVEN  MORE 
IN  DETAIL. 

Erzroom  seems  to  have  been  dealt  with  most  savagely.  Less  than 
200  Armenians  out  of  20,000  in  the  city  itself  escaped  death  or  depor- 
tation; that  is,  exile.  Of  these,  thirty  were  saved  in  the  house  of 
Mr.  Stapleton.  The  Armenians  report  that  when  the  Moslems  came 
and  demanded  that  these  girls  be  delivered  over  to  them,  Mr.  Staple- 
ton  replied,  "You  must  kill  me  before  you  can  touch  them."  Recent 
reports  say  that  in  the  villages  around  Erzroom,  Armenian  women 
and  children  are  appearing,  singly  and  in  groups,  and  are  in  the 
greatest  need.  Whose  heart  is  not  moved  with  pity  for  and  desire 
to  preserve  these  remnants  who  have  escaped  from  the  greatest 
destruction!  Our  opportunity  is  a  wonderful  one,  to  save  the  rem- 
nant, to  aid  in  the  restoration,  to  prepare  for  the  return  of  the  200,000 
fugitives  now  in  Persia  and  the  Caucasus. 


The  ravages  which  disease  has  wrought  are  noticeable  in  the  fact 
that  the  children  do  not  number  as  many  as  the  grown  people.  Of 
the  234,000  refugees  now  enrolled  in  the  Caucasus  and  Persia,  but 
88,000  are  children  under  15  years  of  age.  There  are  81,000  women 
and  65,000  men.  Rachel  is  indeed  weeping  for  her  children.  The 
young  lives  could  not  stand  the  hardships  of  the  terrible  flight  and 
weeks  of  more  terrible  suffering  and  disease  afterwards. 

In  Aleppo,  reLef  funds  are  so  inadequate  that  many  exiles  in  the 
destitute  places  have  only  grass  to  eat,  and  they  are  dying  of  starva- 
tion by  hundreds. 

In  Turkey  alone,  and  not  including  the  relief  of  the  Armenians 
in  the  Caucasus,  $52,800  a  month  is  needed  to  keep  these  destitute 
people  alive. 

Reports  have  been  received  from  a  wide  district,  including  Deir 
Zor  and  other  places  on  the  River  Euphrates  and  in  the  Arabian 
Desert.  Eye-witnesses  have  seen  thousands  of  deported  Armenians 
under  tents,  in  the  open,  in  caravans  on  the  march,  descending  the 
river  in  boats  and  in  all  phases  of  their  miserable  life. 

Only  in  a  few  places  does  the  Turkish  government  issue  any 
rations,  and  those  are  quite  insufficient.  The  people,  therefore,  are 
themselves  forced  to  satisfy  their  hunger  with  food  begged  in  that 
scanty  land  or  found  in  the  parched  fields.  They  were  found  eating 
grass,  herbs  and  locusts,  and,  in  desperate  cases,  dead  animals  and 
human  bodies  are  reported  to  have  been  eaten. 

Naturally,  the  death  rate  from  starvation  and  sickness  is  very  high 
and  is  increased  by  the  brutal  treatment  of  the  authorities,  whose 
bearing  toward  the  exiles  as  they  are  being  driven  back  and  forth 
over  the  desert  is  not  unlike  that  of  slave-drivers.  With  few  excep- 
tions, no  shelter  of  any  kind  was  provided,  and  the  people  coming 
from  a  cold  climate  are  left  under  the  scorching  desert  sun  without 
food  and  water.  Temporary  amelioration  can  only  be  obtained  by 
the  few  able  to  r"7  the  officials. 

The  misery  ana  hopelessness  of  the  situation  is  such  that  many 
of  the  exiles  are  reported  to  have  resorted  to  suicide.  Illustrating 
the  methoos  employed,  it  is  reported  that  a  group  of  one  hundred 
children  were  gathered  and  placed  in  the  care  of  an  educated  young 
widow  from  Hadjln.  Two  weeks  later  these  children  were  deported 
Subsequently,  from  two  survivors  found  further  down  the  caravan 
route,  it  was  learned  that  the  rest  of  the  children  had  perished  The 
house-mother  in  whose  charge  the  children  had  been  placed,  crazed 
by  the  loss  of  her  charges,  was  among  the  deported  moving  on.  Boat 
loads  sent  from  Zor  down  the  river  arrived  at  Ana,  one  hundred  and 
thirty  miles  away,  with  three-fifths  of  the  passengers  missing  "There 
appears,  in  short,  to  be  in  execution  a  steady  policy  to  exterminate 

from  sTc^'h   7°  ChargC  °f  maSS3Cre-   Their  ^struction 

from  so-called  natural  causes  seems  decided  upon." 

"Refugees  are  located  in  broken  down  houses,  damp  sheds  stalls 

fshed^    ^'  ThCre  SiCknCSS  "  Unavoid^le  for  th'em,  where  the  fam 

ver'  fu:llT  C°ld'  damP  Carth>  With0ut  ™y  what- 

ever.  If  this  condition  continues,  half  the  refugees  will  die. 


"Everywhere  comes  the  cry  of  cold  and  hungry  people,  mostly 
women  and  children.  Stoves,  you  may  say,  there  are  none.  All  are 
hair-naked.  Mothers  in  despair  have  put  aside  their  babies,  unwilling 
to  look  upon  their  pale,  livid  limbs.  Tears  have  dried  from  their 
eyes  and  words  of  complaint  been  silenced  from  their  lips." 

The  annual  report  of  the  Medical  Department  in  Urumia  says: 
"A  sad  case  was  that  of  the  mother  of  a  girl  of  twelve  who  was 
being  taken  away  to  a  life  of  slavery.  The  mother  protested  and 
tried  to  save  her  child,  who  was  ruthlessly  torn  from  her.  As  the 
daughter  was  being  dragged  away,  the  mother  made  so  much  trouble 
for  her  oppressors,  and  clung  to  them  so  tenaciously,  that  they 
stabbed  her  twelve  times  before  she  fell,  helpless  to  save  her  little 
girl  from  her  fate.  This  woman  recovered  from  her  wounds.  Some 
people  were  shot  as  they  ran,  and  children  that  they  were  carrying 
were  killed  or  wounded  with  them.  In  some  cases  men  were  lined  up 
so  that  several  could  be  shot  with  one  bullet  in  order  not  to  waste 
ammunition  on  them. 

"At  the  height  of  the  epidemic  not  less  than  two  thousand  were 
sick,  and  the  mortality  reached  forty-eight  daily,  and  the  fact  that  four 
thousand  died,  besides  the  one  thousand  who  were  killed,  will  help 
to  make  vivid  the  terrible  conditions  that  prevailed  in  our  crowded 
premises.  All  ranks  have  suffered — preachers,  teachers,  physicians, 
etc.,  as  well  as  the  poor,  for  all  had  to  live  in  the  same  unhygienic 
surroundings. 

"One  of  the  most  terrible  things  that  came  to  the  notice  of  the 
Medical  Department  was  the  treatment  of  Syrian  women  and  girls  by 
the  Turks,  Kurds  and  local  Mohammedans.   After  the  massacre  in  the 

village  of  ,  almost  all  of  the  women  and  girls  were  outraged, 

and  two  little  girls,  aged  eight  and  ten,  died  in  the  hands  of  Moslem 
villains.  A  MOTHER  SAID  THAT  NOT  A  WOMAN  OR  GIRL 
ABOVE  TWELVE  (AND  SOME  YOUNGER)  IN  THE  VILLAGE 
  ESCAPED  VIOLATION.  THIS  IS  THE  USUAL  RE- 
PORT FROM  THE  VILLAGES. 


A  MISSIONARY  IN  URUMIA,  PERSIA. 

Dr.  then  quotes  from  a  letter  written  by  Rev.  Dr.  , 

a  missionary  in  Urumia,  on  the  8th  of  November.  It  shows  that  in 
the  midst  of  the  heavy  work  of  relieving  present  suffering  there  had 
been  up  to  that  time  no  opportunity  to  attend  to  the  work  of  burying 
the  dead,  massacred  in  April. 

"Politically,  things  are  in  apparently  good  order.  People  are  easily 
frightened  and  are  nervous,  but  we  have  good  hopes.  Yesterday  I 
went  to  the  Halla  of  Icrr.ael  Agha,  and  from  there  Kasha  and  some 
men  went  with  me  up  the  road  to  the  place  where  the  Gawar  men 
were  murdered  by  the  Turks.  It  was  a  gruesome  sight!  Perhaps  the 
worst  I  h-ve  seen  at  all.  There  were  seventy-one  or  two  bodies;  we 
could  not  tell  exactly  because  of  the  conditions.  It  is  about  six  months 
since  the  murder.   Some  were  in  fairly  good  condition— dried,  like  a 


13 


mummy.  Others  were  torn  to  pieces  by  the  wild  animals.  Some  had 
been  daggered  in  several  places,  as  evident  from  the  cuts  in  the  skin. 
The  most  of  them  had  been  shot.  The  ground  about  was  littered  with 
empty  shells.  It  was  a  long  way  off  from  the  Kalla,  and  a  half  hour's 
walk  from  the  main  road  into  the  most  rugged  gorge  I  have  seen 
for  some  time.  I  suppose  the  Turks  thought  no  word  could  get  out 
from  there — a  secret,  solitary,  rocky  gorge.  How  those  three  wounded 
men  succeeded  in  getting  out  and  reaching  the  city  is  more  of  a 
marvel  than  I  thought  it  was  at  the  time.  The  record  of  massacre 
burials  now  stands  as  follows: 

"At  Charbash,  forty  in  one  grave,  among  them  a  bishop.  At 
Guelpashen,  fifty-one  in  one  grave,  among  them  the  most  innocent 
persons  ;n  the  country;  and  now,  above  the  Kalla  of  Ismael  A^ha, 
seventy  in  one  grave,  among  them  leading  merchants  of  Gawar. 

"These  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  persons,  buried  by  me,  came 
to  their  death  in  the  most  cruel  manner  possible,  at  the  hands  of 
regular  Turkish  troops  in  company  with  Kurds  under  their  command." 


THE  NEED  INCREASING. 

The  condition  of  the  Armenians  since  their  deportation  has  at  all 
times  been  most  pitiable,  but  recent  reports  which  have  reached  the 
office  of  the  American  Committee  for  Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief 
acquaint  us  with  a  situation  which  is  even  more  terrible  than  before. 
A  report  from  Aleppo  says:  "Our  messenger  has  safely  returned  from 
Deir  Zor  and  we  hope  to  be  able  to  send  him  again  in  a  few  days. 
The  misery  in  Deir  Zor  seems  to  be  indescribable.  There  are  now 
about  50,000  Armenians  in  Deir  Zor.  Thousands  have  been  sent  far- 
ther south  and  of  those  who  have  been  sent  on  not  more  than  20  per 
cent,  remain  alive.  Of  the  first  caravan  numbering  about  600  people 
which  was  sent  from  Deir  Zor  to  Ana  the  Arabs  killed  500  on  the  way. 
In  a  word,  there  are  only  remnants  of  the  people  who  have  been  sent 
from  their  homes  left  down  there.  Not  more  than  one-quarter  of  the 
people  coming  from  Marash  and  the  surrounding  country  have  sur- 
vived, and  the  survivors  are  in  a  miserable  condition  and  must  sooner 
or  later  perish.  Aintab  people  reached  Deir  Zor  without  greatly 
diminished  numbers,  but  as  they  brought  nothing  with  them  they  are 
dying  of  hunger  by  the  hundreds.  Farther  down  there  on  the  cara- 
van road  there  are  large  camps  remaining,  but  they  are  vigilantly 
guarded  and  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  send  them  help." 

Another  crying  need  of  the  Armenians  comes  from  the  thousands 
of  orphans  who  have  survived  the  deportation  and  are  now  con- 
centrated in  and  about  Aleppo  district.  "In  Konia  proper  and  sur- 
rounding villages  it  is  estimated  there  are  2,000  orphans,  and  this 
number  is  constantly  increasing.  In  a  native  letter  from  Haleb  last 
week  the  number  of  orphans  at  that  place  was  estimated  at  25,000  " 
A  recent  despatch  says:  "Vali  here  (Aleppo)  is  all  the  time  talking 
ot  sending  the  orphans  to  Constantinople,  but  he  is  not  willing  that 
any  of  the  missionaries  or  Armenians  should  accompany  them.  It  is 
plain  to  us  that  they  wish  to  destroy  the  children  in  one  way  or 
another." 


STARVING  IN  LEBANON. 


We  quote  the  following  from  the  Near  East  Magazine  of  London, 
issue  of  June  9,  1916: 

"To  one  who  is  acquainted  with  Lebanon  it  is  not  difficult  to  un- 
derstand how  the  whole  population  of  such  a  province  can  be  starved. 
The  chief  means  of  livelihood  of  the  Lebanese  are  the  rearing  of  the 
silkworm,  the  cultivation  of  fruit  trees  and  vegetables,  the  rearing 
of  cattle  on  a  small  scale,  and  transport  by  mules,  donkeys,  etc.  The 
blockade  has  killed  the  silkworm  industry;  the  commandeering  of  all 
sound  cattle  and  beasts  of  burden  has  ruined  the  limited  agricultural 
resources  of  the  mountain  and  the  muleteer's  business,  while  the 
locusts  have  put  the  finishing  touch  to  the  work  of  desolation." 

"Whole  families  are  alleged  to  have  disappeared  and  some  of  the 
villages  lost  MORE  THAN  ONE-THIRD  OF  THEIR  POPULA- 
TION." 

"The  death  roll  in  Lebanon  has  attained  the  appalling  figure  of 
80,000." 

The  Al  Ahram,  one  of  the  greatest  representatives  of  the  Arabic 
Press  in  Egypt,  which  until  recently  denied  that  there  was  a  famine 
in  Mt.  Lebanon,  now  affirms  that  80,000  have  died  from  starvation 
up  to  May  1,  1916.  It  reiterates  what  we  copied  above  from  the  Near 
East  Magazine,  and  adds: 

"Many  are  dying  of  hunger  on  the  highways  and  in  the  woods, 
where  they  go  seeking  grass  and  weeds,  but  find  the  ground  barren, 
the  locusts  having  consumed  all  vegetation." 

MISSIONARY  PROPERTY  REQUISITIONED. 

"As  you  probably  know,  all  our  property  has  been  requisitioned 
by  the  Turks  at  Marsovan,  Sivas  and  Cesarea,  and  the  missionaries 
have  all  been  forcibly  sent  to  Constantinople.  Five  hundred  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  American  property  at  Marsovan  alone  has  fallen 
into  their  hands.  They  have  now  got  all  my  worldly  possessions, 
my  library,  all  my  personal  effects  and  those  of  my  family,  household 
furniture,  etc.,  which  we  had  with  difficulty  accumulated  through 

years.   I  had  a  talk  with  Mr.  ,  who  arrived  from  Smyrna  last 

Friday.  He  says  the  food  situation  in  that  city  is  desperate  and  that 
the  people  are  dying  in  large  numbers  from  starvation. 

"The  Marsovan  girls  saved  by  Miss  Willard  are  now  all  lost 
again.  This  is  very  hard  for  us  to  bear.  The  girls  and  women  who 
were  being  cared  for  by  the  missionaries  in  Cesarea  were  forced  to 
become  Mohammedans  the  same  day  they  were  taken." 


STATEMENT  OF  GERMAN  TEACHERS. 


The  following  are  extracts  from  a  letter  written  in  October,  1915, 
r  German  teachers  in  the  High  School  at  Aleppo: 

"In  face  of  the  horrible  scenes  which  take  place  daily  near  our 
school  buildings  before  our  very  eyes,  our  school  work  has  sunk  to 
a  level  which  is  an  insult  to  all  human  sentiments.  How  can  we 
masters  possibly  read  the  stories  of  'Snow-white  and  the  Seven 
Dwarfs'  with  our  Armenian  children,  how  can  we  bring  ourselves 
to  decline  and  conjugate,  when  in  the  courtyards  opposite  and  next 
to  our  school  buildings  death  is  reaping  a  harvest  among  the  starv- 
ing compatriots  of  our  pupils? 

"Girls,  boys,  and  women,  all  practically  naked,  lie  on  the  ground 
breathing  their  last  sighs  amid  the  dying  and  among  the  coffins  put 
out  ready  for  them. 

"Forty  to  fifty  people  reduced  to  skeletons  are  all  that  is  left 
of  the  2,000  to  3,000  healthy  peasant  women  driven  down  here  from 
.  Upper  Armenia.  The  good-looking  ones  are  decimated  by  the  vice 
of  their  gaolers,  whilst  the  ugly  ones  are  victimized  by  beatings, 
hunger  and  thirst.  Even  those  lying  at  the  water's  edge  are  not 
allowed  to  drink.  Europeans  are  prohibited  from  distributing  bread 
among  them.  More  than  a  hundred  corpses  are  taken  out  daily  from 
Aleppo. 

"All  this  is  taking  place  before  the  eyes  of  highly  placed  Turkish 
officials.  Forty  to  fifty  people  reduced  to  skeletons  are  lying  heaped 
up  in  a  yard  near  our  school.  They  are  practically  insane,  and  have 
forgotten  how  to  eat.  If  one  offers  them  bread  they  push  it  indif- 
ferently aside.   They  utter  low  groans  and  await  death. 

"The  more  refined  Turks  and  Arabs  shake  their  heads  sorrowfully 
when  they  see  br.utal  soldiers  bringing  convoys  through  the  town  of 
women  far  advanced  in  pregnancy,  whom  they  beat  with  cudgels, 
these  poor  wretches  being  hardly  able  to  drag  themselves  along. 

"There  are,  moreover,  dreadful  hecatombs  of  human  beings,  as 
shown  in  the  enclosed  decree  of  Djemal  Pasha. 

"This  is  a  proof  that  in  certain  places  the  light  is  feared,  but  people 
have  not  yet  the  will  to  put  an  end  to  these  scenes,  which  are  de- 
grading to  mankind. 

"We  know  that  the  Foreign  Office  has  already  received  descrip- 
tions of  the  local  condition  of  affairs  from  other  sources.  Since, 
however,  the  procedure  of  deportation  has  in  no  way  been  ameliorated' 
we  feel  it  more  than  ever  our  duty  to  submit  this  report  for  your 
perusal. 

"Above  all,  we  realize  to  the  full  the  danger  with  which  German 
prestige  is  here  threatened. 

"DIRECTOR  HUBER, 
"DR.  NIEPAGE, 
"DR.  GRAETNER, 
"M.  SPIELER." 


r6 


RELIEF  MEASURES  IN  TURKEY. 


The  American  Committee  is  cooperating  with  strong  commissioners 
in  Turkey,  Persia,  the  Russian  Caucasus  and  elsewhere,  composed  of 
American  Consuls,  missionaries  and  others,  thus  giving  assurance  of 
wise  and  effective  use  of  all  funds  entrusted  to  their  care.  Ambassador 
Henry  Morgenthau  rendered  great  service  while  in  Turkey,  and  since 
his  return  to  America,  both  before  and  since  his  resignation  as  Ambas- 
sador, has  done  much  to  arouse  America  to  help  the  Armenians.  Offi- 
cials of  foreign  governments  have  given  freelv  of  time,  strength  and 
leadership  to  help  the  relief  commissioner's.  Missionaries  have  thrown 
themselves  into  this  work  with  a  devotion  that  should  inspire  heroic 
sacrifice  on  the  part  of  those  who  support  them  at  home.  At  least 
eight  of  these  have  died  under  the  terrific  strain. 

The  greatest  contribution  in  all  this  relief  work  is  not  being  made  by 
members  of  the  Committee,  who  are  giving  their  time,  nor  by  generous 
contributors  in  America,  who  are  giving  their  money,  but  the  supreme 
sacrifice  is  on  the  part  of  the  faithful  commissioners,  who,  disregard- 
ing all  hardship  and  personal  dangers,  devote  themselves  to  ministry 
to  the  sick,  destitute  and  dying.  These  are  they  of  whom  the  world 
is  not  worthy.  Such  service  and  sacrifice,  shared  by  members  of  their 
families,  make  the  largest  contributions  of  money  seem  paltry. 

When  the  story  of  the  year  has--been  written  in  detail  it  will  reveal 
a  list  of  heroes  and  heroines  who  counted  not  their  lives  dear  unto 
themselves,  but  who,  for  the  sake  of  the  people  to  whom  they  had 
given  their  lives,  remained,  in  the  face  of  peril  and  even  threatened 
death,  in  order  that  they  might  serve  best  those  whom  they  loved 
and  the  country  for  which  they  had  decided  in  earlier  years  to  make 
the  supreme  sacrifice. 

Among  the  last  things  which  Dr.  S.  G.  Wilson,  Chairman  of  the 
Caucasus  Relief  Commission,  did  before  he  was  fatally  stricken  with 
typhoid  at  Tabriz,  was  to  send  a  report  to  the  American  Committee  for 
Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief.  The  following  quotations  are  the  voice 
of  a  martyr,  who  laid  down  his  life  on  June  2nd,  1916. 

What  an  ideal  work  it  is  to  repair  the  ravages  of  war  and  restore 
the  refugees  to  their  old  homes.  This  we  have  been  attempting  in 
the  wake  of  the  victorious  Russian  army.  Its  steady  advance  along 
the  whole  line  from  Trebizond  to  Kerind  has  given  us  the  opportunity. 
So  already  there  are  thousands  of  sprouting  harvest-fields  in  the 
districts  of  Van  and  Alasgard,  with  the  promise  of  food  for  thou- 
sands of  families. 


Since  the  vernal  equinox  there  has  been  a  small  but  steady  stream 
of  returning  refugees-strong,  vigorous  men,  mostly  farmers.  They 
wisely  left  their  families  in  the  security  of  the  Caucasus,  themselves 
daring  the  risk  of  possible  retreat.  The  Russian  Government  gave 
free  transport  to  the  refugees  on  the  railway  as  far  as  Julfa,  the  Per- 
sian border.  Thence  they  started  on  foot,  via  Khoi,  a  tramp  of  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

The  Union  of  cities  and  the  Red  Cross  established  a  series  of  hos- 
pices on  this  road,  where  free  lodging  and  food  were  given  to  the 
refugees,  the  sick  were  taken  care  of  and  officials  and  the  relief  force 
entertained.  Most  of  these  were  groups  of  Kirghiz  tents,  structures 
of  very  thick  felt  over  a  light  framework  of  wood. 

It  is  with  a  thrill  of  joy  that  one  comes  in  sight  of  the  Red  Cross 
Flag  in  the  far-off  Persian  mountains.  Blessed  is  the  service  under 
this  banner  of  sacrifice. 

These  repatriated  Christians  had  need  of  everything.  All  had  been 
swept  away  in  the  avalanche  of  loot  and  destruction.  Many  things 
could  wait  the  return  of  the  families.  Before  the  house  was  the  field. 
Our  first  care  was  given  to  providing  farm  implements,  seed  and 
cattle.  I  remained  in  Khoi  to  make  purchases  and  to  be  in  reach 
of  the  money  centres,  Tiflis  and  Tabriz,  while  Dr.  Macallum  and 
Mr.  Gracey  went  on  to  Van  to  make  distribution.  Oxen,  cows, 
buffaloes,  wagons,  plowshares,  spades,  sickles,  grain,  and  various 
garden  seeds  were  among  our  purchases. 

The  accomplishment  of  such  a  task  is  not  easy,  at  present,  for 
Persia  and  the  Caucasus  have  been  and  are  being  drawn  on  for  army 
supplies  to  an  unprecedented  extent.  To  prevent  interference  with 
the  army  commissariat  we  were  limited  as  to  our  markets.  Fortu- 
nately for  the  refugees,  they  and  the  Armenian  Committees  had  no 
limita.ions  put  upon  them.  Transportation  was  another  difficulty,  as 
pack  animals  were  liable  to  be  commandeered  for  the  army.  Even 
the  Persians  in  certain  cities  prohibited  the  export  of  grain  lest  there 
be  scarcity  and  rise  of  prices.  The  Persians  were  also  dissatisfied 
.with  the  military  export  of  beef-cattle  and  held  a  mass  meeting  in 
Tabriz  to  protest  against  it  as  liable  to  cause  scarcity  for  farm  labor 
and  the  meat  markets. 

As  an  offset  to  these  difficulties  and  the  manifold  trials  of  the  refu- 
gees there  was  a  remarkable  providence.  THE  UNREAPED  HAR- 
VEST OF  LAST  YEAR  REMAINED  SAFE  IN  THE  FIELDS. 
This  was  true  in  a  number  of  districts  of  Van.  The  villages  had 
remained  without  inhabitants.  A  few  thousands  only  had  gathered 
in  the  city  of  Van.  There  was  a  small  army  of  occupation  which  had 
foraged  on  the  standing  wheat.  The  winter  had  passed  with  unusual 
mildness.  No  hail  or  storms  had  beaten  upon  the  standing  grain.  So 
when  in  April  the  refugees  returned,  they  thrust  in  the  sickles  which 
we  put  into  their  hands  and  reaped  abundantly.  This  grain  and  the 
undisturbed  wheat  stores  in  the  pits  in  the  villages  give  bread  to  many 
till  the  harvest  time.  I  should  mention  that  we  brought  from  the 
Caucacus  about  30,000  pieces  of  bedding  and  clothing  for  distribution. 


This  work  of  reconstruction  has  not  been  without  its  risks.  So 
in  Urumia  there  has  been  imminent  danger,  while  the  Nestorians  were 
rebuilding  the  homes  and  re-establishing  their  altars.  The  battle  raged 
but  a  few  hours'  distant  between  Kurds  and  Russians,  and  any  day 
might  have  seen  Urumia  become  the  battle  field  again,  even  as  has 
happened  to  Soujbulak,  where  the  ebb  and  flow  of  war  has  left  noth- 
ing but  ruin  and  desolation.  So  it  might  have  been  at  Van.  Indeed, 
when  the  Turkish  force  retook  Bitlis,  the  people  in  Van  were  preparing 
for  another  flight.  But  thanks  to  the  onward,  successful  sweep  of  the 
Russian  army,  the  danger  has  more  and  more  receded.  The  wisdom 
of  taking  the  risk  has  been  justified,  and  a  harvest  will  not  only 
furnish  food  for  the  people,  but  make  the  army  commissariat  easier. 

A  CRY  FROM  TURKEY. 

The  following  communications  have  just  been  received  by  the  Com- 
mittee from  sources  well  known  by  the  chairman  of  the  committee. 
The  documents  are  through  official  channels  and  are  absolutely  trust- 
worthy. For  obvious  reasons  names  are  suppressed.  Their  publication 
would  bring  disaster  upon  the  writers  and  their  friends. 

DEIR  ZOR,  FROM  LETTERS  FROM  AINTAB  (JUNE  22). 

The  greatness  of  the  work  here  can  neither  with  words,  nor  with 
the  pen,  be  properly  described;  one  must  see  in  order  to  understand 
the  conditions  prevailing.  Ah,  dear  sister,  Deir  Zor  needs  help,  un- 
usual help.  Please  tell  people  so.  Tell  our  missionaries  that  THEIR 
COLLEGE  CHILDREN,  YOUNG  MEN  AND  GIRLS,  ARE  DY- 
ING OF  HUNGER.  To  look  at  them  breaks  one's  heart.  We  have 
need  of  hands  that  reach  out  to  help,  of  people  ready  to  help,  faithful 
to  their  duty.  Perhaps  they  are  astonished  at  this  cry  for  help.  But 
I  am  not  thinking  of  myself,  but  of  the  crowds  of  children  outside, 
that  are  crying  for  bread,  of  the  many  pure  young  girls  who,  driven 
by  hunger  and  loneliness  at  home,  seek  refuge  at  the  hearths  of 
Arabian  men,  to  whom  they  are  sold  for  bread;  the  women,  the 
mothers,  who  are  wandering  about  in  despair  to  find  bread  for  the 
little  ones;  the  young  people  who,  weakened  by  hunger,  appear  like 
old  people  prematurely  aged.  The  responsibility  of  having  seen  this 
compels  me  to  write.  The  work  that  is  done  here  for  these  most 
needy  people  is  very  great,  but  yet  it  does  not  meet  the  need.  We 
must  daily  buy  back  at  least  three  or  four  young  girls,  else  they  will 
be  completely  lost.  The  number  of  those  who  implore  aid  is  end- 
less. A  little  boy  said  to  his  mother:  "Mother,  here  is  the  cooking- 
stove  and  the  pot,  why  don't  you  cook  us  something  to  eat?"  The 
little  one  had  not  eaten  anything  for  two  days.  Another  child: 
"MOTHER,  WILL  EVER  THE  TIME  COME  AGAIN  THAT  I 
CAN  EAT  AS  MUCH  AS  I  LIKE?"  THE  PEOPLE  KILL  AND 
EAT  THE  STREET  DOGS.  A  short  time  ago  they  killed  and  ate 
a  dying  man.  An  eyewitness  told  me  this.  A  woman  cut  off  her  hair 
and  sold  it  for  bread.  I  SAW  A  WOMAN,  WHO  FROM  THE 
STREET  ATE  THE  CLOTTED  BLOOD  OF  AN  ANIMAL.  UP 
TILL  NOW  ALL  FED  THEMSELVES  WITH  GRASS,  BUT 


19 


THAT,  TOO,  IS  NOW  DRIED  UP.  Last  week  we  came  in  a 
house  of  which  the  occupants  had  not  eaten  anything  since  three 
days.  The  wife  had  a  child  in  her  arms  and  tried  to  give  it  a  crumb  of 
bread  to  eat.  The  child  could  not  move,  it  groaned  and  died  in  her 
arms.  In  this  very  moment  I  came  in  with  C;  he  gave  her  a  lira. 
The  woman  took  it  and  then  cried,  in  tears:  "Ah,  if  you  had  brought 
this  only  one  day  earlier,  my  child  would  have  been  still  alive." 
A  family  went  to  bed  hungry;  the  child  could  not  sleep  and  cried 
for  bread.  At  last  the  Arabian  owner  of  the  house  was  moved  with 
compassion  and  gave  the  little  one  a  piece  of  bread.  The  child  took 
it,  was  going  to  eat  it,  but  then  bethought  himself,  held  it  close  to 
hi'm  and  said:  "When  I  eat  it  now  I  will  be  hungry  again  to-morrow," 
and  with  the  feeling  to  have  the  bread  near  him,  went  off  to  sleep. 
A  mother  threw  herself  into  the  Euphrates,  after  she  had  seen  her 
child  die  of  hunger;  a  father  did  the  same.  On  account  of  the  general 
dearness,  the  need  increases  very  much.  When  one  gives  a  few 
madjids,  the  people  pay  first  their  bread  debts,  have  bread  for  a  few 
days,  and  hunger  presents  itself  again.  Whenever  and  wherever  there 
is  any  help,  God  will  use  it  and  us— no  trouble  will  be  too  much  for  us. 
Dear  sister,  if  you  could  only  see  NOW  many  of  our  women  and  girls 
whom  you  have  known!  The  work,  that  with  the  help  of  God  you 
have  begun,  will  later  show  its  fruit.  The  fruit  will  exceed  your  ex- 
pectations. During  the  last  weeks  I  have  with  G.  visited  so  many 
houses,  that  we  learned  to  know  well  all  Deir  Zor  and  its  poor.  It  is 
impossible  to  remain  totally  hidden  .  .  .  G.  is  at  work  morning, 
afternoon  and  night;  he  really  has  the  needs  of  the  poor  and  unfortu- 
nate at  heart,  and  ever  and  again  he  puts  his  life  in  danger  to  save  some. 

12th  July.  .The  need  is  great.  The  people  live  on  what  we  are 
able  to  give  them.  The  people  that  we  meet  in  the  street  hardly  look 
like  human  beings;  if  one  has  money  it  is  not  necessary  to  look  for 
the  poor,  you  find  them  in  crowds.  Rich  and  poor  do  not  exist 
any  more.  If  one  should  go  from  door  to  door  distributing  gifts, 
one  could  be  sure  to  have  given  nothing  unnecessary.  Certainly  a 
morning  will  follow  this  dark  night,  but  the  Lord  will  triumph  only 
when  faithful  watchmen  of  the  night  keep  their  posts,  loyally  fulfill- 
ing their  duty.   May  God  use  you  as  such!" 

From  a  letter  from  Hamam,  dated  June  25:  "There  are  about  1,000 
tents.  As  far  as  health  goes,  we  are  well;  but  much  of  what  we  see 
and  experience  here,  compels  us  to  write  to  you.  There  are  here 
many  hundreds  of  miserable,  abandoned  children,  women  and  men, 
who,  weakened  by  hunger  and  illness,  wander  about  the  tents,  looking 
very  pitiful.  At  every  meal  come  at  least  twenty  or  thirty  begging  for 
a  piece  of  bread.  Many  families  have  eaten  nothing  for  several  days 
and  do  not  have  the  courage  to  beg.  The  number  of  such  families 
increases  from  day  to  day.  What  will  be  the  end?  If  it  goes  on 
like  that  much  longer,  the  greater  part  of  the  people,  perhaps  all, 
will  perish  of  hunger  and  misery.  THE  PEOPLE  FIGHT  FOR 
THE  CLOTTED  BLOOD  OF  KILLED  ANIMALS;  THEY  GNAW 
THE  BONES  which  they  find  on  dung-hills;  they  look  for  grains  of 
oats  in  horse-dung,  to  eat  them;  THEY  EAT  THE  FLESH  OF 
FALLEN  ANIMALS  AND  MEN.   MANY  WHO  CANNOT  BEAR 


20 


IT  ANY  LONGER,  THROW  THEMSELVES  AND  THEIR  CHIL- 
DREN INTO  THE  EUPHRATES.  SUCH  HORRIBLE  THINGS 
WE  SEE  DAILY  AND  CAN  DO  NOTHING  BUT  IMPLORE 
GOD  FOR  HELP  AND  MERCY.  And  we  consider  it  our  duty  to 
inform  you  of  this  terrible  need.  Dear  sister,  we  beseech  you,  for 
Christ's  sake,  to  come  in  some  way  to  the  aid  of  this  poor,  miserable 
people,  to  save  it  from  horrible  starvation.  If  possible,  send  someone 
who  himself  can  see  all  this.  When  at  all  possible,  SEND  SOME 
RICH  AND  LASTING  HELP.  Everything  is  very  dear.  One  family 
needs  for  bread  alone  from  fifteen  to  twenty  piasters  per  day. 

From  Sepka  (June,  1916) :  "With  this  letter  I  come  to  you  as  the 
representative  of  many  prayers  and  cries  of  need.  I  ask  for  a  crowd 
of  more  than  2,500  miserable,  hungry  people,  dried  ap  to  skeletons. 
Many  were  already  here,  crowds  of  new  ones  have  been  added. 
MANY  DIE  OF  HUNGER  EVERY  DAY.  THE  GRAVE-DIG- 
GERS ARE  ALWAYS  BUSY.  THE  GROANS  AND  LAMENTA- 
TIONS IN  THE  MARKET  PLACE,  IN  THE  STREETS,  AND 
OUT  IN  THE  QUIET  DESERT  GIVE  OUR  HEARTS  NO  REST. 
THE  CHILDREN  ON  THE  DUNG-HILLS!  AH!  WHAT  AM  I 
TRYING  TO  DESCRIBE!  THE  PEN  FAILS  ME!  I  BEG  FOR 
THEM  FOR  HELP,  FOR  MERCY. 

ANOTHER  PICTURE  OF  RELIEF  ACTIVITIES 

In  consultation  with  the  other  Relief  Committees,  we  selected 
Hyots  Tsore  as  the  region  for  our  work.  It  is  a  beautiful  and  fertile 
valley,  through  which  the  Khoshap  river  flows  down  into  Lake  Van. 
It  contains  forty  villages,  now  in  ruins,  but  many  of  the  people  have 
come  back  and  every  day  there  are  new  arrivals.  In  view  of  the 
needs  of  the  army  it  is  forbidden  to  buy  animals  or  seed  in  the 
province  of  Van.  We  secured  permission,  however,  to  buy  buffaloes, 
as  they  are  not  used  for  food  by  the  soldiers. 

In  addition  to  the  oxen,  cows  and  buffaloes  sent  us  by  Dr.  Wilson 
from  Khoi,  we  purchased  an  even  greater  number  from  drovers  who 
brought  them  from  Persia. 

As  soon  as  we  had  animals  enough,  Mr.  Gracey  went  out  to  the 
villages  with  an  Armenian  volunteer  from  America  as  a  guard,  and 
gave  tickets  to  the  farmers  who  were  to  get  oxen.  These  tickets  were 
at  once  brought  in  to  me  and  I  delivered  the  animals  according  to 
the  arrangements  made  in  the  village.  Our  plan  was  to  give  a  yoke 
of  oxen  to  each  three  families  and  care  was  taken  to  group  together 
only  such  families  as  would  probably  get  on  harmoniously.  Our  hope 
is  that  later  we  may  be  able  to  give  a  yoke  of  oxen  to  every  two 
families. 

We  do  not  give  the  animals  outright,  but  take  a  note  from  each 
recipient,  by  which  he  promises  to  pay  to  us  or  to  any  committee  or 
person  designated  by  us,  the  value  of  the  animals  received.  Payment 
is  to  be  made  in  three  annual  instalments,  beginning  November  1,  1917. 
In  fixing  the  price  we  take  off  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent,  of 
what  we  have  paid,  as  the  price  of  oxen  is  now  from  three  to  six 
times  greater  than  under  normal  conditions. 


Cows  are  given  chiefly  to  widows,  orphans  and  to  families  where 
there  are  little  children. 

The  Governor  and  the  General-in-command  very  kindly  give  an 
official  document  to  all  who  get  animals,  confirming  their  possession 
and  forbidding  their  requisition  for  any  purpose  whatever. 

We  gave  plowshares,  shovels  and  sickles  to  the  families  which 
got  oxen  or  buffaloes.  In  the  month  covered  by  this  report,  we  gave 
400  oxen  to  600  families,  100  cows  to  200  widows,  orphans,  invalids 
and  infants,  and  50  buffaloes  to  75  families. 

It  proved  impossible  to  procure  seed  grain  in  large  quantities  from 
Persia.  We  learned,  however,  that  if  we  gave  money  to  the  farmers 
they  could  purchase  seed  for  themselves  in  the  villages  round  about. 
In  this  way  between  three  and  four  thousand  bushels  of  wheat  and 
barley  were  bought,  and,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe,  were  actually 
sown.  We  took  notes  also  from  the  farmers  for  this,  by  which  they 
promised  to  give  back  to  us  at  harvest  time  the  same  amount  of 
seed  as  they  had  received.  Our  idea  is  that  this  grain  can  either  be 
given  out  again  as  seed  or  be  used  for  food  as  seems  best.  When 
the  Governor  heard  of  our  method  of  distributing  seed,  he  was 
greatly  pleased  and  gave  us  10,000  rubles,  the  sum  we  have  expended, 
and  we  handed  over  to  him  the  notes  we  had  taken  from  the  farmers. 
He  indicated  that  he  would  give  us  more  money,  as  needed,  for  the 
same  purpose.  We  also  provided  the  people  of  our  district  with 
considerable  quantities  of  potatoes,  beans,  lentils,  corn  and  all  kinds 
of  vegetable  seeds,  for  which  they  were  very  grateful. 

There  is  a  great  scarcity  of  tools  of  all  kinds  in  Van,  but  we  were 
able  to  set  up  a  number  of  tradesmen,  tailors,  carpenters,  bakers  and 
others.  Much  more  could  wisely  be  done  along  this  line  as  the 
people  return. 

SYRIA'S  TERRIBLE  PLIGHT 

America  has  not  had  so  much  information  about  conditions  in 
that  portion  of  the  Turkish  Empire  known  as  "Syria."  There  is  now 
no  Syrian  nation.  But  in  what  is  known  commonly  as  Syria,  there 
are  three  to  four  million  people  whose  needs  are  as  great  as  those  of 
the  Armenians.  It  is  even  asserted  that  in  much  of  the  region  known 
as  "Lebanon,"  the  privations  are  greater.  Syria  is  sharing  Armenia's 
late.  Called  by  its  inhabitants  "the  land  of  roses,"  it  is  now  a  land 
of  misery  and  woe.  Mohammedans  as  well  as  Christians  are  dying 
of  starvation  and  disease.  « 

Communication  with  the  outside  world  is  difficult.  The  people 
cannot  let  the  world  know  their  condition  and  the  situation  there  is 
known  chiefly  from  refugees  who  have  escaped  to  Egypt.  A  pam- 
phlet published  by  the  Syrian-Mt.  Lebanon  Relief  Committee  of  New 
York  asserts  that  100,000  have  perished  in  the  Lebanon  region  alone. 
It  is  cut  off  from  the  world.  The  military  and  naval  blockade  cut  off 
all  food  supplies,  but  now  the  Turkish  government  has  cabled  the  Ameri- 


22 


can  State  Department  that  relief  supplies  may  enter  and  be  distributed. 
The  silk  factories  are  closed.  The  threshing  floors  are  deserted.  The 
fields  are  a  barren  waste.  The  able-bodied  men  have  been  drafted 
into  the  army.  The  aged  men,  the  women  and  children  are  dying 
from  starvation.  They  are  living  on  grass  and  herbs.  And  a  plague  of 
locusts  last  spring  has  left  little  of  either. 

The  Syrians  in  America  have  done  nobly.  They  have  given  about 
one  million  dollars.  They  are  observing  fast  days  and  are  sending 
the  savings  to  their  brothers  in  Syria.  Four  hundred  thousand  in 
the  Lebanon  region  alone  are  in  the  grip  of  hunger  and  disease,  facing 
famine,  and  a  slow,  lingering,  harrowing  death.  They  cry  to  the 
world  for  help  in  their  terrible  agony  of  body  and  mind.  Deliver- 
ance to  this  simple,  gentle,  hospitable  people  must  come  from  Amer- 
ica, or  it  will  not  come  at  all. 

The  Nestorian  Christians,  about  200,000  of  them,  are  commonly 
called  Assyrians,  though  they  speak  the  Syrian  language.  In  Janu- 
ary of  last  year  they  were  subjected  to  massacre  and  pillage.  No 
city  or  village  escaped.  Typhoid  and  other  diseases  broke  out  among 
them.  Many  thousands  of  them  died.  They  have  been,  and  still  are, 
in  a  pitiable  plight.  The  story  of  the  Armenians  could  be  told  over 
again  in  the  case  of  these  Nestorian  Christians,  who  at  great  cost, 
for  many  centuries,  have  held  fast  their  Christian  faith.  They  have 
been  shot  down,  robbed,  their  property  burned  or  plundered,  their 
women  and  children  subjected  to  nameless  outrages. 

An  account  from  an  absolutely  unimpeachable  source,  tells  of  the 
experiences  of  the  Mountaineers  of  Mar  Shimun.  They  escaped  to 
Persia.  They  number  about  100,000.  Of  these  about  75,000  came 
to  Salmas  almost  naked,  destitute  of  everything  and  shivering  with 
cold.  Salmas  had  already  been  plundered  and  in  many  cases  the 
refugees  could  not  even  be  sheltered  in  the  houses.  Relief  to  some 
extent  came  to  them  from  Russia  and  England.  Over  200  girls  and 
women  were  carried  off  into  captivity  and  forced  to  accept  Moham- 
medan husbands.    These  people  must  have  help  or  be  annihilated. 

Just  as  this  hand-book  is  going  to  press,  a  cablegram  is  received 
by  the  American  Committee  from  Rev.  Mr.  Vanneman  in  Tabriz, 
dated  Sept.  27,  1916.  It  says  "Relief  Committee"  needs  for  winter: 
Food,  $160,000;  bedding,  $100,000;  clothing,  $25,000;  seed,  $10,000; 
orphanage,  $10,000— Total,  $305,000. 

This  is  a  sample  merely  of  appeals  from  Syrian  sources.  The 
needs  are  unimaginably  great. 

I 

23 


AMERICA'S  RESPONSE  THUS  FAR. 

The  American  Board  representing  the  Congregational  Churches 
which  for  seventy-five  years  has  been  at  work  in  Turkey  first  took  up 
the  work  of  alleviating  suffering.  A  considerable  sum  was  sent  through 
their  treasury. 

Then  several  independent  committees  were  organized  to  raise  funds. 

Later  all  these  were  united  under  the  title  of  the  American  Com- 
mittee for  Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief,  composed  of  a  strong  and 
representative  group  of  men. 

The  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  included 
an  appeal  for  Armenians  in  a  message  to  the  churches  in  behalf  of 
War  Relief  in  June,  1916,  entitled  "The  Opportunity  and  Test  of 
American  Christianity." 

An  appeal  to  Sunday  Schools  in  behalf  of  children  in  Bible  lands 
to  take  offerings  on  Memorial  Day  was  circulated. 

On  August  26th  the  public  press  announced  that  President  Wilson 
had  appointed  October  21st  and  22nd  as  days  for  American-  contribu- 
tions to  Armenian  and  Syrian  relief.  This  was  in  response  to  a  resolu- 
tion passed  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  calling  upon  the  President  to  designate  a  day  for  this  purpose. 

About  one-fifth  of  the  money  asked  for  has  been  secured.  Nearly 
one-half  of  this  amount  has  been  given  .by  three  large  givers  and  one 
organization,  the  balance  by  a  few  hundred  churches  and  other  or- 
ganizations and  a  comparatively  small  number  of  individual  givers. 
The  great  mass  of  American  citizens  have  given  nothing  to  alleviate 
this  suffering. 

The  expenses  of  the  committee  are  provided  for  privately,  so  that 
every  dollar  given  goes  to  meet  the  appalling  need. 

HOW  SOME  GIVE 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  typical  letter  received  by  the 
Committee  from  a  minister  and  his  wife: 

Though  financially  limited  ourselves,  receiving  a  salary  of  but 
$20  per  month  as  pastor  of  churches,  we  have  decided  to  give  one- 
half  of  this  amount  monthly  for  six  months  to  relieve  Armenian 
suffering  and  destitution,  desiring  the  consolation  only  of  Him  who 
centuries  ago  in  those  lands  said:  "I  was  hungry  and  ye  gave  me  to 
eat;  I  was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me  drink;  I  was  a-  stranger  and  ye 
took  me  in;  naked  and  ye  clothed  me;  I  was  sick  and  ye  visited  me* 
I  was  in  prison  and  ye  came  unto  me." 


24 


Some  are  giving  generously  out  of  their  abundance.  Others  are  giv- 
ing with  sacrifice  out  of  their  meager  income.  A  laboring  man  enclosing 
a  savings  bank  check  wrote,  "I  am  out  of  work  and  have  no  income, 
but  I  at  least  have  my  health  and  relatives  and  loved  ones." 


Geo.  W.  Hartzel,  Manufacturer, 
Black  Walnut  Lumber,  Figured  Walnut  and  Fancy  Veneers, 
Saw-miil,  South  Ave.,  Piqua,  Ohio, 

Res.,  815  Hamon  Ave.,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

July  3,  1916. 

Am.  Com.  for  Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief, 

Mr.  C.  V.  Vickrey. 
My  dear  Sir: 

Replying  yrs  28 — I  am  enclosing  another  Ck  $25.  I  have  to  tell 
you  that  my  eldest  daughter  Ruth,  made  out  the  other  check  No.  C39. 
$25.00  sent  you — and  that  it  was  the  last  work  of  this  kind  she  did 
before  leaving  our  home  for  her  home  in  heaven. 

She  was  an  invalid  for  years,  but  kept  our  tithe  funds  and  did  all 
the  paying  and  I  assure  you  our  loss  is  SEVERE. 

Oh!  I  wish  I  knew  how  best  to  do  just  the  things  Ruth  would 
have  me  do — but  after  reading  your  circular — the  impression  seemed 
to  say  "Papa,  duplicate  the  last  remittance!"    May  God  richly  bless 
you  and  help  to  heal  our  wounded  hearts,  here  and  in  Armenia. 
Very  sincerely, 

(Signed)    GEO.  W.  HARTZELL. 


A  well  dressed  but  unassuming  man  walked  into  the  offices  of  the 
American  Committee  for  Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief,  70  Fifth  Avenue, 
New  York,  one  day  and  inquired  for  the  secretary.  He  named  a 
middle  western  state  as  his  home  and  said  he  had  been  thinking 
about  making  a  contribution  to  help  the  Armenian  refugees  in  Turkey 
and  had  concluded,  from  what  he  had  read  in  the  newspapers,  that 
money  is  badly  needed  now. 

"I  can  give  $5,000,"  he  said,  "but  I  would  like  to  hear  something 
about  the  facts." 

The  assistant  secretary  of  the  committee,  Walter  Mallory,  sum- 
marized the  situation  in  accordance  with  information  which  had  been 
received  in  recent  letters  and  cablegrams.  One  of  the  facts  stated  by 
Mr.  Mallory  is  that  there  are  about  a  million  Armenian  and  Syrian 
Christian  refugees  in  Turkey  and  Persia,  largely  women  and  children, 
nearly  all  of  whom  are  destitute.  Deported  from  their  homes  by 
Turkish  soldiers,  many  thousands  are  suffering  for  lack  of  the  bare 
necessities  of  life.  Then  he  began  to  tell  of  sacrifices  which  con- 
tributors to  the  relief  fund  had  made. 

25 


The  visitor  listened  to  the  story  of  the  minister  and  his  wife  in 
Ohio,  given  above. 

"Well, '  said  the  stranger,  "if  they  can  make  a  sacrifice  like  that 
I  think  I  can  give  $10,000." 

On  the  way  to  the  office  of  Charles  R.  Crane,  the  treasurer,  the 
donor  was  told  of  an  old  woman  who  wrote  she  had  no  money  but 
would  give  her  old  paisley  shawl— an  heirloom  which  had  been  in  the 
family  many  years  and  had  once  been  her  mother's.  He  listened  also 
to  a  letter  from  the  mother  of  a  little  girl,  four  years  old,  who  had 
earned  two  cents  sweeping  the  sidewalk.  She  wanted  to  give  one  cent 
to  the  Belgian  babies  and  the  other  to  the  starving  Armenians. 

"If  other  people  are  willing  to  give  up  things,"  commented  the 
stranger,  "I  ought  to  be  willing  to  do  the  same.  I  think  that  every 
one  ought  to  help  save  this  old  Christian  race.  I  believe  I  can  give 
$15,000." 

Before  he  entered  the  treasurer's  office  the  stranger  seemed  to  make 
some  mental  calculations  and  when  he  wrote  out  his  check  it  read 
$18,000. 

"Under  no  circumstances  is  my  name  to  be  made  public,"  said  the 
stranger,  so  the  treasurer,  to  keep  faith,  personally  deposited  the 
check  in  the  bank. 


IS  SACRIFICE  A  REALITY? 

A  Christian  steward  who  has  reversed  the  rule  of  giving  by  keeping 
one-tenth  for  personal  use  and  giving  away  nine-tenths  to  bless  and 
enrich  the  world  in  a  recent  letter  says: 

"This  lead-,  me  to  ask,  have  we,  you  and  I,  realized  what  this  war 
would  have  cost  us,  individually,  if  our  nation  had  been  drawn  in  with 
the  others? 

"In  the  destruction  and  depreciation  of  so-called  real  property  and 
the  inevitable  slump  in  stocks  and  bonds,  the  United  States  would 
alrcacy  have  lost  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars. 

"Some  thousands  of  this  would  have  fallen  on  you  and  me  and 
some  thousands  additional  from  increased  taxes. 

"But  that  is  a  mere  bagatelle  when  we  think  of  those  dear  to  us 
children  and  friends,  who  would  now  be  in  untimely  graves. 

"Oh  for  true  thankfulness,  expressed  in  deeds,  not  words,  that  God 
has  so  far  kept  us  out  of  carnage. 

"True,  we  have  given  the  cost  of  a  cannon  and  a  few  rounds  of 
ammunition  to  the  Belgians,  and  have  been  duly  lauded  therefor  but 
that  and  all  the  rest  of  our  gifts  meant  no  sacrifice  to  you  or  me! 

"Some  one  has  said,  'The  measure  of  Christ's  suffering  for  us  is 
tne  only  true  measure  of  our  devotion  to  Him,'  and  on  this  basis  blame 
-not  pra:se-is  due;  and  hoarded  wealth  will  surely  cry  out  against 
us  when  our  accounts  are  audited,  as  they  will  be  soon. 

"You  and  I  may  already  be  giving  lavishly  to  God  and  humanity 
but  war  would  FORCE  from  us  thousands  more. 


26 


"Let  us  rather  gladly  give  it,  as  a  thank  offering  that  we  and  ours 
yet  live,  and  that  we  may  speed  the  coming  of  the  King. 

"If  this  means  selling  some  favorite  investment,  so  much  the  better. 
"I  have  just  cashed  in  a  good  one  myself  for  another  thank  offering. 
"Let  us  'Do  it  Now.' 

"Cold  showers  are  healthy  and  bring  a  delightful  afterglow." 

A.  A.  HYDE. 

WHAT  IS  NEEDED 

Ex-Ambassador  Morgenthau,  who  represented  our  government  in 
Constantinople  during  the  early  part  of  the  war,  estimates  that  $5,000,000 
is  needed  for  Armenia  alone,  to  rehabilitate  the  scattered,  broken  families 
in  their  former  homes  now  desolate  or  to  establish  and  support  them 
in  new  locations  until  they  can  again  become  self-supporting.  But 
besides  Armenia  there  is  Syria,  with  a  population  of  four  million, 
many  of  whom  ARE  NOW  DYING  of  hunger  and  privation,  with  the 
added  hardships  of  a  second  winter  fast  approaching.  A  leading  Moslem 
paper  that  formerly  denied  that  there  was  need  in  Syria  now  grants 
that  more  than  100,000  have  perished  in  one  section  of  Syria.  To  this 
should  be  added  the  suffering  in  Palestine,  in  Persia,  and  among  the 
refugees  in  Egypt,  the  Caucasus  and  elsewhere. 

One  dollar  will  keep  a  person  alive  for  a  month. 
In  some  cases  $25  will  help  to  save  and  establish  a  whole  family. 
One  hundred  dollars  will  buy  a  buffalo,  $150  a  yoke  of  oxen,  $50 
a  cow. 

Other  sums  will  provide  farming  implements,  clothing,  bedding,  seed, 
medicines,  materials  for  houses,  etc. 

TURKISH  GOVERNMENT  PLEDGES  COOPERATION 

The  American  Committee  for  Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief  has  been 
able  to  administer  relief  steadily  throughout  the  past  winter  in  certain 
refugee  camps  and  important  centers,  working  through  official  channels 
that  insured  effective  administration. 

Now,  however,  the  Turkish  Government  cables  to  the  State  Depart- 
ment at' Washington  that  relief  may  be  distributed  to  the  indigent  in- 
habitants of  Syria  through  representatives  of  the  Red  Crescent  and  the 
American  Red  Cross  at  Beirut  jointly. 

Contributions  should  be  sent  to  Charles  R.  Crane,  Treasurer,  70 
Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 


27 


HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  MOST  OF  RELIEF  DAYS 


L    Personal  suggestions  to  pastors  and  other  speakers: 

1.  Master  the  facts  in  this  handbook. 

2.  Tray  much  over  the  appeal  you  are  to  make  in  behalf  of  the 
sufferers. 

3.  Interview  editors  of  local  papers  to  make  sure  that  facts  con- 
cerning the  situation  and  need,  sent  to  them  from  New  York, 
are  published.  Write  a  letter  for  publication  on  the  subject  to 
the  editor  over  your  own  name.  Encourage  other  members  of 
the  committee  to  write  similar  letters,  giving  publicity  to  the 
facts. 

4.  Preach  at  least  one  sermon  or  make  an  address  on  the  subject. 
Following  are  some  of  the  suggested  texts  which  mi~ht  be  used: 
John  15:13;  Isaiah  63:9;  1  John  3:17;  Prov.  24:11,12;  James 
1:27. 

5.  See  that  the  meetings  are  thoroughly  advertised  by  means  of 
posters,  the  church  bulletin  and  public  press. 

6.  Interview  people  of  means  to  secure  large  individual  contribu- 
tions. 

7.  See  that  the  matter  is  thoroughly  considered  by  your  Church 
Federation  or  Association  of  Ministers. 

II.  Work  through  churches,  synagogues  and  other  gatherings: 

1.  Every  pastor  to  be  asked  to  set  aside  October  22nd  as  Armenian- 
Syrian  Relief  Sunday,  presenting  the  need  and  appealing  to  the 
congregation. 

2.  Every  Sunday  School  superintendent  and  teacher  to  be  asked 
to  present  Armenian-Syrian  situation  to  members  of  the  Sunday 
School,  October  15th,  distributing  such  literature  and  collection 
boxes  as  may  be  desired,  with  the  understanding  that  they  will 
be  returned  Sunday,  October  22nd. 

III.  Community  organization: 

Every  city  where  a  local  committee  does  not  already  exist  is 
asked  to  organize  a  temporary  Relief  Committee,  this  committee 
to  elect  a  treasurer,  to  employ  an  executive  secretary  to  give 
his  or  her  full  time  to  the  work  until  October  22nd,  it  being 
understood  that  the  salary  of  this  local  executive  secretary  and 
other  necessary  expenses  for  printing,  postage,  stenography, 
28 


circular  appeals,  etc.,  may  be  deducted  from  local  receipts  before 
remittance  is  made  to  the  New  York  treasury. 

The  committees  should  include,  if  possible,  the  mayor  of  the 
city,  superintendent  of  education,  chairman  or  representative  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  prominent  religious  workers,  in- 
cluding Protestants,  Reman  Catholics  and  Jews.  BUT,  if  on 
short  notice  it  is  impracticable  to  secure  the  leadership  of  these 
officials,  have  A  COMMITTEE,  even  though  it  be  small  and 
self-constituted,  that  can  work  quickly  and  effectively  through 
an  executive  secretary. 

Among  the  lines- of  activity  suggested  for  this  local  committee  and 
the  executive  secretary,  are  the  following: 

1.  Publicity: 

The  fullest  possible  publicity  to  be  secured  in  the  daily  and 
weekly  press,  through  church  announcements,  bulletins,  posters, 
and  other  agencies. 

(a)  Interview  editors,  asking  them  to  give  prominence  to  the  Presi- 
dent's proclamation  and  to  the  urgent  needs  of  Armenia  and 
Syria. 

(b)  Write  letters  on  the  subject  to  the  editor  and  have  friends  write, 
giving  facts  that  he  can  publish. 

(c)  Make'  sure  that  the  editor  is  publishing  material  sent  to  him 
from  the  New  York  office,  duplicates  of  which  will  be  sent  to 
the  local  committee,  if  requested. 

(d)  Get  business  firms  to  devote  a  portion  of  their  advertising  space 
for  one  or  more  days. 

(e)  Use  posters  widely  in  churches,  hotels,  banks,  restaurants  and 
public  places. 

(f)  Ask  local  papers  to  open  a  relief  fund  of  their  own  to  which 
citizens  will  be  invited  to  send  contributions,  the  local  papers 
making  daily  reports  of  receipts  and  turning  them  over  to  the 
local  treasurer  at  the  close  of  the  campaign. 

(g)  Request  booksellers  to  display  in  their  windows  books  on  Ar- 
menia and  Syria  and  have  the  public  library  feature  books  on 
this  subject.  The  two-color  poster  (11x14)  furnished  by  the 
Committee  can  be  displayed  in  connection  with  such  exhibits. 

:  29 


2.  Other  plans : 

(a)  A  special  committee  of  influential  citizens  should  be  organized 
to  solicit  from  wealthy  persons  large  gifts,  commensurate  with 
Armenia's  needs  and  America's  resources. 

(b)  Letters  of  appeal  signed  by  prominent  citizens  or  members  of 
the  committee  should  be  addressed  to  lists  of  prospective  con- 
tributors whom  it  is  impossible  to  interview  personally.  Leaflet, 
"Cry  of  a  Million,"  is  available  for  enclosure  in  these  letters. 

(c)  The  committee  should  select  its  own  treasurer,  well  known 
locally,  to  whom  contributions  may  be  forwarded.  A  bank  or 
trust  company  may  serve. 

(d)  As  far  in  advance  of  October  21st  and  22nd  as  practicable  a 
supply  of  large  collection  boxes  and  posters  should  be  secured 
from  the  Armenian-Syrian  Committee  and  placed  in  all  restau- 
rants, banks,  hotels,  offices  and  other  places  for  the  reception  of 
offerings. 

(e)  Wherever  practicable  secure  the  leadership  and  cooperation  of 
the  mayor  of  the  city/ Chamber  of  Commerce,  Board  of  Trade 
and  other  similar  bodies. 

(f)  Secure  the  energetic  cooperation  of  the  women's  clubs  or  other 
organizations  of  women.  The  indescribable  suffering  and 
destitution  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  women  and  children 
should  appeal  to  the  deepest  sympathy  of  the  womanhood  and 
childhood  as  well  as  the  manhood  of  America. 

(g)  Where  war  relief  committees  are  already  organized,  enlist  their 
cooperation  and  utilize  their  facilities  for  this  special  occasion. 

(h)  Where  practicable  arrange  a  union  meeting  on  Saturday  night, 
October  21st,  or  Sunday  afternoon,  October  22nd,  as  a  civic 
response  to  the  appeal  for  these  non-combatant,  but  none  the 
less  war-trodden  races. 

3.  Printed  matter: 

The  following  printed  matter  is  available : 

(a)  The  appeal  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  quoting  the 
President's  proclamation  and  urging  generous  response  from  the 
churches. 

(b)  Speakers'  Handbook,  a  manual  of  32  pages  of  information  con- 
cerning conditions  and  needs  in  Armenia  and  Syria. 

(c)  "The  Cry  of  a  Million,"  an  eight-page,  two-color,  illustrated 
leaflet,  giving  a  popular  statement  of  the  need,  suitable  for  en- 
closure by  local  committees  in  letters  of  appeal. 

3© 


(d)  A  two-color  poster,  size  approximately  11x14,  suitable  for  use 
on  church  bulletin  boards,  in  hotels,  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s,  restaurants, 
banks,  offices,  Sunday  School  rooms,  etc. 

(e)  Large  cardboard  collection  box  (6x4x4).  Price  5c.  each,  suit- 
able for  use  in  connection  with  above  poster  in  banks,  hotels, 
restaurants,  and  public  places,  also  as  a  general  collection  box  in 
Sunday  Schools  and  church  organizations.  Local  committees  are 
authorized  to  deduct  the  cost  of  these  boxes  from  receipts  be- 
fore remitting  to  New  York. 

(f)  A  small  cardboard  collection  box  (4x2j4  x2}4)  suitable  for  in- 
dividual use,  in  homes,  Sunday  School  classes  and  smaller  groups ; 
price  2c.  each. 

(g)  A  neat  celluloid  dime  coin  box,  pocket  size,  capacity  of  $5.00  in 
dimes,  numbered  serially.  Can  be  emptied  with  key,  and  re- 
filled. Price  10c.  each.  Cost  may  be  repaid  if  desired,  from 
receipts  as  indicated  above. 

IV.    Large  gifts: 

Too  much  emphasis  cannot  be  laid  upon  the  importance  of 
securing  large  gifts  in  some  measure  commensuraL^  with  the 
need.  Ambassador  Morgenthau  estimates  that  five  million  dol- 
lars will  be  required  to  meet  the  needs  of  Armenia  alone.  The 
situation  in  Syria  and  Palestine  threatens  to  prove  even  more 
serious  than  that  in  Armenia  during  the  coming  winter. 
Collections  and  small  contributions  are  important,  both  financially 
and  spiritually,  but  in  every  city  there  are  prosperous,  well-to- 
do  individuals  who  should  be  approached  personally  by  the  com- 
mittee in  organized  solicitation  and  asked  to  give  one  thousand, 
five  thousand  or  ten  thousand  dollars  out  of  their  abundance 
to  relieve  Armenian  and  Syrian  distress.  One  individual  has 
contributed  $60,000,  another  $50,000,  another  $25,000.  Such 
contributions  purchase  more  bread  and  flour  and  blankets  and 
medicines  and  save  more  lives  than  many  small  collections,  im- 
portant as  small  collections  are. 

(a)  List  the  more  prosperous  citizens  of  the  community  and  solicit 
them  personally  for  gifts  commensurate  with  their  wealth  and 
resources. 

(b)  Prepare  a  larger  list  of  smaller  contributors  to  whom  a  letter 
will  go  over  the  names  of  the  local  committee,  asking  them  to 
send  contributions  to  the  local  treasurer.  Small  leaflets  for 
judicious  enclosure  in  such  solicitation  will  be  sent  upon  request. 


31 


WHAT  OTHERS  HAVE  DONE. 

Some  church  contributions  have  been  over  $15,000. 
Some  pledge  weekly  gifts  as  long  as  the  war  lasts. 
Some  small  and  some  rural  churches  have  shown  disproportionate 
unselfishness. 

Some  have  organized  their  whole  community. 

Some  pastors  and  churches  have  secured  very  large  personal  sub- 
scriptions from  the  well-to-do. 
Some  have  done  nothing  at  all. 

WHAT  SHALL  BE  OUR  RESPONSE? 

Was  there  ever  an  hour  calling  for  such  sympathy  for  a  stricken 
world?  How  shall  America  save  her  own  soul  unless  this  cry  breaks 
through  her  soddenness  and  selfishness  as  she  listens  to  the  agonized 
cry  of  humanity.  Can  we  leave  the  shattered  remnants  of  nations  to 
die?  Shall  we  remain  rich  and  content  while  their  hearts  break ?  Shall 
we  lie  down  to  sleep  in  peace  forgetting  that  multitudes  have  no  shelter 
from  the  night?  Our  fathers  and  brothers  have  not  been  killed,  our 
wives  and  sisters  and  sweethearts  have  not  been  subjected  to  nameless 
and  fearful  abuse,  our  little  children  have  not  been  driven  to  despair 
by  the  terror  that  haunts  the  night  and  the  dread  that  fills  the  day 
and  the  privation  and  suffering  that  fill  them  both.  Our  homes  and 
other  property  have  not  been  ruthlessly  destroyed.  Our  incomes  are 
not  being  confiscated  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  awful  war,  as  in  nearly 
every  country  in  Europe.  Suppose  we  were  the  sufferers,  what  would 
we  want  others  to  do  for  us?  The  voice  of  need,  the  cry  of  suffering, 
the  call  of  God  confront  us — what  use  can  God  ever  have  for  men 
like  us  again  if  we  do  not  rise  up  and  do  our  part!  America  can. 
Will  she?  A  part  of  the  answer  rests  with  every  person  who  reads 
these  lines. 


32 


American  Committee  for  Armenian 
and  Syrian  Relief 

70  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 

Including  Work  of  the  Armenian  Relief,  the  Persian 
War  Relief,  and  the  Syrian-Palestine  Relief  Committees 


James  L.  Barton, 
Chairman 


Samuel  T.  Dutton, 
Secretary 

Charles  V.  Vickrey,  Executive  Secretary 


Charles  R.  Crane, 
Treasurer 


Frederick  H.  Allen 
Arthur  J.  Brown 
Edwin  M.  Bulkley 
John  B.  Calvert 
John  D.  Crimmins 
Cleveland  H.  Dodge 
Charles  W.  Eliot 
William  T.  Ellis 
Fred  B.  Fisher 
James  Cardinal  Gibbons 
Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer 
Norman  Hapgood 
Maurice  H.  Harris 
William  I.  Haven 
Hamilton  Holt 
Arthur  Curtiss  James 
Woodbury  G.  Langdon 
Frederick  Lynch 
Chas.  S.  Macfarland 
H.  Pereira  Mendes 


William  B.  Millar 
John  Moffat 
Henry  Morgenthau 
John  R.  Mott 
Frank  Mason  North 
Harry  V.  Osborne 
George  A.  Plimpton 
Rt.  Rev.  P.  Rhinelander 
Karl  Davis  Robinson 
William  W.  Rockwell 
Wm.  Jay  Schieffelin 
George  T.  Scott 
Isaac  N.  Seligman 
William  Sloane 
Edward  Lincoln  Smith 
James  M.  Speers 
Oscar  S.  Straus 
Stanley  White 
Talcott  Williams 
Stephen  S.  Wise. 


Expense  of  collecting  and  transmitting  funds  is  met  by  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  committee.  One  hundred  cents  of  every  dollar  received  from 
churches  and  other  sources  goes  to  the  immediate  work  of  relief. 

The  Committee  urges  immediate  attention  to  this  pressing 
need,  and  asks  that  contributions  be  sent  to 


CHAS.  R.  CRANE,  Treasurer, 

70  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York. 


